Title

Description

This is a fascinating 1871 George A. Crofutt map of the world showing various circumnavigatory routes. The map covers the entire world, excluding the Arctic and Antarctic regions, with the American continent presented at center. The American and European trans-continental routes, both via China and Japan and via Australia are noted. Designed to be part of a tourist's guide, the map incorporates a staggering wealth of informative detail in this map.

The world is depicted according to the political conventions of the late 19th century. The map illustrates the routes of great voyages of discovery, including those of Cook, Ross, Vancouver, Wilkes, Gore and the U.S. Ship Vincennes. Exploratory routes zigzag through the oceans and seas of this map, showing important land marks on the various voyages illustrated. The map identifies Cook's death in Hawaii, Napoleon's death in St. Helena, the first track of Columbus, the discovery of the North American Coast by John Cabot and Orellana's discovery and navigation of the Amazon River. Various other notes and explanations regarding distances, elevations, discoveries, navigation and other interesting observations are included throughout.

This map was created in 1871, just two years before Jules Verne's classic novel Around the World in Eight Days was published, and might very well have been helpful to Verne in plotting the course for Phileas Fogg's adventurous journey. Fogg, in the book, follows the same route noted in this map, via China and Japan. According to this map, the number of days required to travel around the World via Japan and China would be 87 days and 13 hours, a time that Fogg managed to beat by over 7 days. The time to travel around the World via Australia on the other hand, would have been 99 days and 13 hours. We can only speculate how long Phileas Fogg might have taken to circumnavigate the globe, following that route. The first class fares at the time, according to this map, would have been $ 1,105 (via China and Japan) and $ 985 (via Australia) - far less than the whopping $ 2000 Fog paid just to get across the Atlantic.

Political regions and countries, major mountains, rivers, cities, railways, and other topographical features are also noted. A table listing the distance, time and fare to travel around the world to and from different locations is included in the lower right quadrant of the map. This map was 'Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by Geo. A. Crofutt, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington,' and was issued as part of Crofutt's Trans-Continental Tourist's Guide.

Source

Condition

Very good. Some wear and repair along original fold lines, especially near Sumatra and China. Minor creasing where map was attached to guidebook. Minor offsetting. Professionally flattened and backed with archival tissue.

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